Have you tried podcasting on your blog?
Not long ago, Carol Tice wrote a couple of posts on the topic for us, covering the benefits of podcasting and how to get your first podcast up and running.
I know Carol advises against using a hosted service for your podcasts, but after listening to this podcast on—and about—SoundCloud, I began to wonder about the hidden benefits of using a service like this.
The podcast is an interview with Evan Tenenbaum, SoundCloud’s Audio-content Manager, and although it’s pretty basic, it is a good introduction to what the service offers for writers.
Why give it a try?
This podcast really reminded me of what we bloggers know only too well: online services that make technical tasks easy really do reduce barriers to entry.
By the end of the podcast I was thinking, this service really makes sound recording and distribution easy. If you wanted to try your hand at podcasting, this would be a great way to do it. Record something and link it from your blog. Simple. There’s no real learning curve and no commitment—if you decide you don’t like it, don’t do it again.
Also, since streamed podcasts like these don’t require downloads onto users’ computers, tablets, or phones, they set low barriers to entry for the user who’s never listened to a podcast before. So this kind of technology can work well on both sides of the equation.
As the podcast reveals, SoundCloud is its own community—like YouTube—so by hosting your podcast there, you can reach an audience whose attention you might struggle to get otherwise. Users share links to material within the platform, so it’s yet another way to build a profile and a following that you could easily lead back to your blog.
What do you have to say?
Some bloggers tend to shy away from ideas like podcasting, because they don’t think they want to make it a regular part of their blog offering.
The thing is, it doesn’t have to be. As Evan suggests in the podcast, you could use SoundCloud to give your readers a sample of your latest ebook or training course. You could use it as a faster, more personal way to create a blog post than laboriously writing it all out in text. And as in the case of the example SoundCloud file I’ve linked to in this post, you could us it to record a quick interview—a great way to add value to an every text-based blog post.
Depending on your niche, there could be any number of possible applications for this kind of technology.
So rather than thinking of using SoundCloud as something you need to “take on” and “adopt” in your blogging, why not just give it a try and see how it sits with your next post?
Or are you already using SoundCloud to add value to your blog? I’d love to hear what you think of it in the comments.
My brother uses SoundCloud a ton as he is a DJ who has played in clubs around the world & he uses it to show off his music. He has over 1,500 followers & it helps him tons professionally. I never thought of trying to use it for blogging but that is a GREAT idea after seeing how successful my brother has been using it.
Yeah when I heard of SoundCloud I thought it was just music on the web without downloading.
Thanks for sharing this info Darren. I’m into podcasts myself and I use it to interview my guests for my blog. I use iTunes to promote it aside from readers being able to get it from my blog.
Will definitely try this one.
I don’t have a podcast but I do have audio interviews in some of my blog posts. I opened a SoundCloud account about a month ago to host the audio marketing Q&As I do for my site. I also plan to put the audio files for my video Q&As on SoundCloud as well.
I use SoundCloud for several reasons:
1. it’s another way to get your name out there because you can link your other social accts to it
2. I can have all of my Q&As in one place to point people to instead of having them search my blog
3. Like any site, other members search around for what’s new so it can open up my interviews to be discovered by people I wouldn’t otherwise reach
I installed the SoundCloud Shortcode plugin on my blog/website which makes embedding the audio file in a specific blog post super easy.
Hi Darren…..
Thanks for your post…
I do agree that most of the blogger like to remain behind the scene and they feel shy with podcast. but podcast is really great way to say your thousand word article in 2 min….
You can explain more complex concept using podcast easily….because sometime you can write everything on paper but you can explain that easily verbally.
Hi Darren,
I never considered podcasting before mainly because of the recorded voice thing. I just think my voice sounds weird, like I’m not myself or something like that. But I do see the benefits of doing something like this, same as Youtube promotion sort of…Thanks for sharing this
Mariella
I have never tried podcasting on my blog, but I think it’s really a nice idea. It can help us bloggers to grow our blog easily.
Thanks for writing in this Darren.
HI Darren,
I’d say brands and blogger (add SME’s) could benifit from some of the more offbeat social networks. I think Placecast could be used for SME’s to broadcast to mobile. FS and Gowalla (location if your new) can be used too.
For me Soundcloud comes in as you mentioned it as chiefly a podcast tool. It’s I think the only Social Network in Germany so it will have to keep being great and will continue to get better. I know a lot of musicians here in the UK who are using it to launch albums and get music out cheaply. Their dropping the links into their tribe and making their music move through Likes and shares.
In a lot of ways Larger platforms like Facebook and G+ (not Twitter) make it easy to synch and get your message very Talkable and move. Have a look at the top screen of FB and G+ if your new to them see what media is available and drops some links in your stream. You’ll see some of the meta tags and description you have when you record in Soundcloud pop up. It’ll make you really really Talkable and people will share it. Works too with a domain mapped blog too and all your media. Hope that helps!
See you
Dara
Whenever I hear that a podcast is going to be using SoundCloud, my heart sinks.
I’m a SoundCloud member, I listen to the musicians on SoundCloud. So I’m not adverse to it, but I listen to podcasts on my phone…
A streaming podcast seems like a good idea to some, but a stream is difficult to listen on a mobile device, especially with limited data plans. The “download podcasts over wifi” isn’t an option. I can’t get podcatcher or google listen to “fill up” so I can listen without incurring bandwidth penalties.
SoundCloud fixed a “stream music” problem that MySpace left dying. It enable a lot of music to be placed around the web fairly easily (yes I know its still possible to rip, but it harder).
I’m only really able to listen to SoundCloud podcasts when I’m not on the move; so I don’t make a habit of it. So I rarely listen to them… once and no return. An embedded “listen here” is a post is likely to be missed, because I’m reading the post on a mobile device.
It works for a “one off sample”, but not a regular event. Isn’t the point of producing a podcast to get regular listeners?
I’ve not used Soundcloud, but definitely will give it a shot. Thank you Darren for letting us know about it.
This is a nice review, this tool seems to be a nice one. I will consider giving it a trial just as you suggested but thats if it’s not that teckie to use.
Thanks Darren for sharing.
Love this post, I am a musician, marketer and a blogger and well SoundCloud is the bee’s knees. Never thought about using it for anything outside of rhyming or poetry until this post.
Great work,
Patrick
Really Great Idea About Podcasting , It’s Nice Tool, Will Try To Implement But Cann’t Go For Regularly.
Good post. After reading this article I also started thinking why not introduce podcast to my readers in my blog. Surely will start postcasting very soon.
Great idea! I’ve been toying with my new SoundCloud account for a while now, playing out the possibilities of an audiopost. Thanks! :)
nice post!….
So do I.
I am an author – Lowcountry Bribe, Bell Bridge Books, Feb 2012 – and I recently did a reading and interview on SoundCloud and it worked great! Here it is posted on my WordPress blog http://chopeclark.com/2012/07/hope-talks/ and on my Blogger blog – http://hopeclark.blogspot.com/2012/07/hope-talks.html . I truly intend to use this again.
C. Hope Clark
http://www.chopeclark.com
http://www.fundsforwriters.com
Agree with the post .. and it was awesome reading it
Podcasting is a great medium for online followers who aren’t big on reading. It also helps with knowledge transfer whenever lectures and presentations are recorded.
Have never tried Soundcloud as yet, but it seems interesting. Thanks Darren for sharing about it with newbies like us.
Isn’t one of the main reasons why people do podcasts that thy want to reach a whole new audience via iTunes?
If I understood the article correctly, Soundcloud is it’s own community (i.e. completely separate from iTunes but presumably no-where near as big) – so is this really a better option than the iTunes route?
Anything that will make podcasting easier I am willing to do. I like podcasting: interviewing the people, asking questions, making my personality come alive. I HATE editing it. It takes so much time. I even have an intro that I paid for on Fiverr that is laying dormant…because I don’t know how to add it and it NOT take 3 hours!
I will look into it. Thanks Darren!
I have not yet tried to jump into this type of media yet. Little scared to do it!
One of the keys to successful marketing is getting your products and services to the right market so if you are targeting the type of people that typically use these sites then it could be a great way of expanding your audience. Food for thought definitely!
nice article………… thnx for sharing this post…… keep it up
Soundcloud gold is a great plugin for WordPress.. Now we added that to our club. We appreciate your advise.
SoundCloud can also work well if you did a radio interview as part of promoting your blog. This can happen if you expose your blog to local radio stations and the program producers read it and think of it as a possible subject of a broadcast interview with you.
Here, you could approach your broadcaster to assist you with making the interview available for you to share in an on-demand manner. This could include providing a high-quality recording of the interview that is edited to avoid copyright issues if applicable.